“I know, I know. Sophia told me. I’m sorry I’m so late. How about if we go down to the kitchen and I make us some hot chocolate with marshmallows. Should we wake your mother to join us?”
Enrico froze in place. “What time is it, Uncle?”
“A little after three. I hate to wake her up, though.”
“No. No, we shouldn’t wake her. She says she needs her beauty sleep.” Enrico hoped his voice sounded as grown-up as he meant it to. It worked because Armand nodded and tossed the robe at the foot of the bed to him.
Uncle and nephew spent the next several hours drinking hot chocolate and talking about the latest soccer game, which Armand had attended. When the clock chimed five times in the hallway, Enrico felt a wave of fear engulf him. This was the hour his mother usually returned home, smelling her ugly smell. He bounded off his chair, pulling at his uncle’s arm to get him to follow him. Upstairs, he made sure his uncle was secure in his room at the far end of the hall before he entered his own room, where he stood watch at the window once again, this time to watch for his mother’s return.
He didn’t know how he knew, but he knew that if his uncle saw and smelled his mother, he would leave the house and never return. He felt it in every pore of his body.
* * *
Enrico Araceli jerked upright when he heard a loud banging behind him. The janitor with his scrub bucket. Enrico got up, made the sign of the cross, went down on one knee, then walked down the aisle to where a bank of candles waited. He struck a long match, lit a tall candle that smelled like vanilla. He dropped several euros into the slot and walked away.
As he walked down the wide center aisle he realized he felt worse now than when he’d entered the church.
* * *
Sophia tilted her head to the side and said, “Wherever he went, he’s back. I hear his truck. A word of caution, señora, do not antagonize him.”
The words were barely out of Sophia’s mouth when Rico burst through the door, his eyes full of fire. He looked at the table, at Annie’s empty plate, then at his aunt. “I didn’t tell you to feed her; I told you to give her coffee.”
A tirade in rapid-fire Spanish ensued, making it hard for Annie to follow what nephew and aunt were saying to each other. Whatever they were saying, Sophia was coming out on the short end of the stick. Annie tensed just as Enrico grabbed Sophia by her hair and literally tossed her across the room. Annie was off the bench like she’d been shot from a cannon. She lashed out, wishing she’d fared better with Harry Wong’s martial arts lessons. She screamed at him about hitting a woman, a woman who had changed his diapers, as she pummeled him with her fists, but within seconds, he had her pinned against the table. He gave her a vicious punch to the stomach that brought her to her knees. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Sophia wiping the blood off her forehead. Her eyes looked glazed as she tried to sit up.
“No more bullshit, eh. You Americans like that word, I am told. He grabbed Annie by the arm and slammed her down on the bench. Annie struggled to get her breath. Suddenly, Sophia was sitting across from her, a look of pure terror on her face.
“Now, I am going to ask you this only once, so think very carefully about your answer, Countess. What are these?” Annie tried to focus on the two special phones, hers and Myra’s, and the two special gold shields. “Where did you get these, and what do they mean?”
“They were given to me and Myra. You’re supposed to be so smart, figure it out.”
“By whom?”
Annie could see no point in lying at this point. She risked a glance at Sophia, who seemed to be recovering and was paying attention to their dialogue. “The shields were given to Myra and me by the President of the United States. The phones were given to us by a man named Avery Snowden, who retired from Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”
“Why?” Enrico thundered.
A devil perched itself on Annie’s shoulder. “Because I’m a spy! And so is my friend Myra, who escaped your clutches. Tools of the trade.”
The blow when it came to Annie’s cheekbone rocked her sideways. She could feel the warm trickle of blood running down her cheek. “What, you can’t handle the truth?” Mentally she flipped the pages of Kathryn’s playbook till she found one she liked.
“You’re a wuss, a man who beats on women, a bastard whose mother was a slut. You’re a nothing! The moment Myra makes contact with our people, and she will, you can take that to the bank, they will be here in such droves you won’t know what hit you. One of our people is an expert with a knife. Your manhood will be just a memory when she’s done with you. You can take that one to the bank, too. Oh, and once she slices it off, she’ll shove it up your tight ass.”
“You’re lying!” Enrico screamed. “What kind of spies are two old women?”
“We work for the CIA during the week; then they lend us out to the FBI for weekends. Two elderly ladies raise no suspicion.”
“You’re lying!” Enrico barked a second time.
Annie sighed. “No, Enrico, I am not lying.”
“Call your bankers right now. Tell them to make arrangements to pay my brothers and me my father’s share of the estate. If you don’t, my men in the village will start to kill all the villagers. Here,” Enrico said, shoving one of the special phones across the table to Annie. “When you tell them that, they will do as you say. If they don’t, the deaths of the villagers will be on you. Make sure you convey that to your financial people. After you do that, you will write out a release that I can have published to the courts saying that I am the son of Count Armand de Silva.”
“Well, sure, Enrico. I can do that. Nothing like advertising to the whole world that you and your brothers are illegitimate. I personally don’t think anyone cares even a little bit.”
It wasn’t a blow this time, it was a mighty shove that sent Annie backward and off the bench. She landed with a painful thud, stunned. A searing pain ran down her arm. A broken bone, a dislocated shoulder? She bit down on her lower lip, trying to cope. She could hear Sophia start to screech at her nephew. Once again, the tirade was so quick and fast she could only make out a few words here and there. Did Sophia really call him a maggot on a pig’s ass? Evidently so, because suddenly Sophia was lying next to her, moaning and crying.
“Stupid women!” Enrico raged.
“Sophia is right, you’re worse than a maggot on a pig’s ass!” Annie shot back.
Enrico hauled Annie to her feet and slammed her down on the bench. “Make the call. And you had best be convincing, Countess.”
Annie tried to fight the pain in her arm as she pressed the digits on the phone that would connect her to Connor, her chief financial officer. When she heard his voice, she went into her spiel. “Connor, I want you to listen to me very carefully. You are to release half of all my holdings to Armand’s illegitimate son, who is standing over me to make sure I tell you what he will do if you don’t follow orders. He and his thugs are holding an entire village captive, and he is threatening to kill the villagers one by one unless you do as he says. Connor, there are women and children in the village and two priests. Break the rules, do whatever you have to do. Call Charles Martin and tell him what I just told you as he is second-in-command as you well know. Tell me you understand everything I just said to you, because my captor is standing over me listening to this conversation. You are to expedite this, Connor.”
The voice on the other end of the phone sounded scratchy and tinny. “I’ll call a special meeting immediately. Save me some time and give me Martin’s phone number.”
Annie looked at Enrico, her eyes full of hate. She rattled off Charles’s phone number.
Enrico snatched the phone away and stared at Annie, who looked him right in the eye and didn’t flinch. “I don’t think he believed you, Countess.”
“When it comes to life and death, my people will do what they have to do. They are not barbarians like you and your brothers.”
Enrico snorted. “You could have saved yourself months of ca
ptivity and pain by doing this the first time I asked you. You forced me into this position.”
Annie said nothing. She tried to focus and get past the pain in her arm. She watched as Enrico gathered up the phones and the gold shields to put in a small burlap sack he pulled out of his pocket. He held up one of the gold shields. “This may surprise you, but I know what this is. I have a friend in a very high place who told me about a directive his office received years ago concerning these special shields. The bearer gets, how do you Americans say, a free ride. Nothing will happen to me as long as I have these shields.
“I have a few matters to attend to. I’ll be back before dark, so be prepared, Countess, to finish your journey. I’m going to tie you up now, and my men will watch over you till I get back.”
Enrico turned then to his aunt. “As for you, Auntie Sophia, I will deal with you on my return. Feed my men after I leave; they’ve had nothing to eat today.”
Sophia let loose with another string of obscenities that sounded worse than the other two times she went off on her nephew. He laughed at her as he yanked at the rope he was using to tie Annie to the leg of the plank table.
Annie cursed under her breath, all of Kathryn’s favorite swearwords, and a few of her own thrown into the mix.
Enrico continued to laugh, an ugly, obscene sound, as he stomped from the house. He slammed the door so hard that the glass rattled.
Sophia moved then, faster than Annie thought possible. She started to babble half in Spanish and half in English just as the three guards from outside entered the house and took a seat at the table, at which point Sophia switched to just English. “They do not understand English,” she said as she banged pots and pans in preparation to feeding Enrico’s thugs. “I have a plan,” she hissed.
“I’m glad somebody does,” Annie mumbled as she watched Sophia slice ham. She almost missed Sophia’s sleight-of-hand movement when she snipped bits of green leaves from a plant on the windowsill.
One of the thugs sitting at the table stretched out his legs and kicked Annie in the knee. She yelped in pain. Sophia whirled around and cursed at the men, who just laughed at her. She leaned over Annie, and whispered, “I have changed my mind. I am going to help you.” Annie swooned as she tried to suck up the pain that was rapidly invading her body.
Back at the stove, Sophia filled three plates with sliced potatoes and the same pickled carrots from a large crock on the kitchen counter that she had served Annie earlier, but these carrots were sprinkled with bits of greenery as a garnish. The final thing she added to the plates was the last of the ham. Annie watched as the men dived into the food like they hadn’t eaten in days.
Annie never took her eyes off the men. She waited.
Sophia waited.
Annie started to count down in her head. Ten minutes later, she wanted to raise her fist in victory, but her hands were tied. One by one, the three men toppled over to land on the floor. Sophia gave each of them a solid kick to his head before she untied Annie. She handed Annie a handful of aspirin and some water. “It’s all I have. It might help a little with the pain. Can you walk?”
“If I have to. Did you kill them? I don’t care if you did, I just want to know.”
“No. But when they wake up, hours from now, they will feel like they’re dead. Enrico will be furious. Hurry now, you have to leave here. I have a moped out back, and it has enough gas in it to get you to town. I’ll draw you a map, so you can take secondary roads to avoid running into Enrico if he comes back early. Go to your embassy, where you will be safe. Are you really a spy? Is what you told my nephew true?”
Annie wanted to laugh, but her head hurt too much. “I am, and yes, it’s all true. You can’t stay here; you have to come with me.”
“No, I can’t go with you. I have a bicycle. I’ll go somewhere safe.”
“Oh, no. No, no, you are coming with me. Enrico will find you, and he will kill you. The man is insane. You know it as well as I do. You do not deserve this. My people will protect you, Sophia. Truly they will. I saw people on the road riding double on the mopeds. Show me where the moped is, and let’s get out of here. Are you sure they aren’t dead?”
“I’m sure, señora. Very well, you speak the truth. I am not ready to go to meet my Maker. Not yet. I will go with you. I will drive the moped, but you will have to hold on to me very tightly. The roads are bad.”
“I can do that.” Annie wondered if what she said was true since she could barely move her arm. It was all she could do not to let go and black out with the pain in her shoulder and arm.
Sophia opened the door, looked out both ways, and motioned for Annie to follow her. Annie struggled to her feet, then stood over the three thugs. She bent over to search the men’s pockets. She tossed the cell phones to the side, then looked for the wallets. She took all their money, handing it to Sophia, who didn’t demur. Annie looked at the leader of the trio, the one with the gun. Should she take it or not? Hell yes, Kathryn would have said. Annie picked up the gun and hefted it, to feel the balance.
Sophia gasped and blessed herself as she backed away, her eyes wide. “Do . . . Do you know how . . . to shoot a gun, señora?” she asked fearfully.
“I’m a crack shot. Annie Oakley the second.” Annie grinned.
“What is that . . . crack shot?”
“That means whatever I aim at, I hit, center mass. Now my friend Myra, the one who got away from your nephew, can’t shoot worth a darn. If she was standing in front of a barn door and pulled the trigger, she’d somehow manage to hit a tree.”
In spite of herself, Sophia laughed. Annie thought it was a youthful sound, a happy sound, and yet she knew that Sophia didn’t have much in her life to make her laugh.
“I need something to carry all this in. Do you have a sack of some kind?”
Sophia scurried back into the kitchen and rummaged under the sink. She pulled out a black nylon bag with a Nike logo on it. “Flavio, Rico’s brother, left this here a long time ago. Hurry, señora, we need to leave here.”
Annie dumped the cell phones into the bag, along with the gun. She spent a few minutes staring down at the three thugs. One by one she stomped on their noses. She threw her good arm in the air when she saw blood spurt in every direction. Myra, you would be so proud of me right now.
Annie followed Sophia around to the back of the little house, where there was a small toolshed. She noticed the dying garden, the flower beds that were now dormant. It was obvious that Sophia liked digging in the rich, loamy soil. She just knew she raised a bumper crop of vegetables. She wondered if the little lady cut the flowers and filled her house with them when they bloomed.
Sophia backed up the moped and turned it toward the front of the house. She settled herself on the padded seat, then slung the Nike bag over the handlebars. Annie slid on the back end of the seat and wrapped her good arm around Sophia’s waist. “Go!”
Sophia was right, the roads were terrible, potholes the size of dinner plates all over the place. Sophia did her best to avoid them, weaving in and out and around. Annie thanked God there was little to no traffic on the country road.
Twenty minutes into the kidney-crushing ride, Sophia slowed the moped and pulled to the side of the road. She pointed to the Nike bag. “All the phones are ringing! Now, mine is ringing,” Sophia said as she pulled her own cell phone out of her pocket. “What do you want me to do, señora?”
Annie shrugged. She was saved from a reply when the phones stopped ringing, even Sophia’s.
“Rico will figure it out. Right now, he’s probably halfway to the Village of Tears. I think he will call on more people like those we left behind, and they will be here soon. We need to stick to the back roads. I’m thinking that he will have his people staked out at your consulate. Tell me what you want to do, señora.”
“I need to call my people. How can I call out of the country?”
“You can’t do that with these phones. They are in-country only. The cheapest version sold on the market
. Think about it, why would we need to call out of the country?”
Annie’s hopes crashed. “Okay, okay. Do you know where there is an Internet café?”
“No, I don’t. I never had a reason to use an Internet café. I am sure there are many of them in the heart of town. But first, señora, I am taking you to a doctor I know. I do not like how pale you look. And I think you might have a concussion. You need to be in good condition to continue on.”
Annie didn’t give a second thought to protesting. She didn’t know how much longer she could stand the pain in her shoulder and arm. She simply nodded.
Thirty minutes later, Sophia steered the moped onto a tree-lined street with pleasant-looking cottages on both sides. She drove to the end of the street and up onto a gravel driveway.
Sophia tapped the small horn on the moped. A moment later the door opened, and a wizened old man stepped onto the stoop. He peered at his unexpected guests and smiled when he recognized Sophia.
“I brought you a patient who needs your help. Your discreet help. Can you help us?”
“For you, my dear Sophia, the answer is yes. Do you need to secure your moped?”
“Yes, that would be . . . helpful. First, though, see to my friend. Señora, can you walk on your own?”
“Of course,” Annie said as she tottered forward on shaky legs.
“Go, then, while I take our transportation around to the back of the house.”
“The bag, Sophia.”
“I will not let it out of my sight, señora. Go now.”
Annie made it up the walkway, across a patch of dry grass, and up the three steps to where the doctor waited before her legs buckled. The old doctor caught her just in time.
“Relax, señora, you are in good hands now. Safe hands.”
The last thing Annie remembered before she passed out were the words safe hands.
Chapter 9
Annie woke and knew instantly where she was and how she’d gotten there. The room wasn’t totally dark. She could see a faint yellowish glow from a lamp at the far end of the room. It gave off just enough light for her to see Sophia curled into a ball on a chair next to her bed.
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